The National Institute of Standards and Technology has issued a major revision to the Federal Information Security Management Act, which governs agency information security policies. Ron Ross, a NIST fellow and the agency's FISMA implementation project leader, joined In Depth with Francis Ross to discuss the FISMA additions.

Melissa Taylor, who works in the Law Enforcement Standards Office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, worked with the Justice Department on recommendations for reducing human error in fingerprint analysis.

The agency will fund five-to-eight projects between $1.25 million and $2 million for up to two years. The pilot programs will cover NSTIC's four principles to make identity management secure, interoperable, privacy-enhancing and cost effective.

The White House will push Congress to "finish the job" on spectrum policy, Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra said. First responders still are using analog communications to talk to each other during emergencies.

An analysis by the American Association for the Advancement of Science found the 2012 budget for research and development will make investments into energy and environment research and cut R&D at the Defense Department and NASA.

The goal of the revised FIPS-201-2 will detail at a high level how agencies can integrate secure smart cards with mobile devices. NIST is considering five options for making HSPD-12 cards work with tablets and smart phones.

With the release of the draft of version 1 of the cloud technology roadmap, the agency wants to cast a wider net of cloud expertise. The draft roadmap could be used now by program managers and CIOs in order to meet OMB's goal of moving three services to the cloud by 2013.